Governments of the most industrialised countries have dramatically
increased their public debt to bail out the private banks after
the most disastrous economic and financial meltdown in capitalist
history since the 1930s. Paying debts and reducing fiscal deficits have
become the perfect pretexts to enforce austerity measures everywhere.
The Troika (European Commission, ECB and IMF) and all EU governments
have launched an unprecedented attack on the social and economic
rights of their peoples. This book will enable the reader to understand
how the crisis developed: the consequences of deregulating the banking system,
the logic underpinning private banks’ responses, and the crimes they
perpetrate on a daily basis with the collusion of governments and central
banks. It argues for socialisation, rather than ‘nationalisation’, of the banking
sector so that it becomes a proper public service under citizen control
and monitoring. It argues for the cancellation of illegitimate public debt that
largely results from bank bail-outs. It uses simple straightforward language
to make it possible for anyone to understand the current crisis and see coherent
alternatives to current policies.
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